VATICAN CITY — A group of Knights of Malta and members of the Italian forestry police from the region around L’Aquila — devastated by an earthquake last April — rode their horses the 70 miles from L’Aquila to the papal audience in St. Peter’s Square this morning.

(Cindy Wooden/CNS)

Father Romano Damy, the knights’ chaplain, said the group left L’Aquila last Thursday and mounted their pilgrimage to thank the pope for visiting the region a few weeks after the quake.